Slice of Western life: Professional Bull Riders tour makes pit stop in Glendale

Desert Diamond Arena looked decidedly different on Saturday evening than its usual appearance. The venue is no stranger to physical sports as it used to be the long-time home of the Arizona Coyotes.

But this time, ice and hockey sticks were replaced with nearly 700 tons of dirt and around 100 cattle as cowboys roamed the same halls that Shane Doan and Oliver Ekman-Larsson used to with the Professional Bull Riders tour making its stop in Glendale for a three-day event.

For a weekend, Arizona returned to its deep western roots and resembled the way it was in the early 20th century  — spurs and brimmed hats in all.

A different kind of anthem

The evening started off with a strong indigenous presence as the White Apache Mountain Tribe performed a ritual dance.

Michael Enis of the Tohono O'odham Nation, located in Papago, was then asked to do a blessing and sing the national anthem in his native language.

“It’s great,” Enis said. “It tells a similar story to what it is in English, just in the native language, to represent the Tohono O’odham Nation and all the native tribes in the country. The language is still here, we’re still here. We’ve come a long ways in the last couple 100 years with relations to each other. Singing in the native language is reminding people we’re still here.”

Last year, Enis did just the blessing before the event, where he asked for protection for the riders.

This year the national anthem was also included, and he wasn’t sure how it would go.

“I was wondering how it’d be received,” Enis said. “It was really, really good.”

A diverse crowd

Westgate Entertainment District was completely transformed over the weekend with PBR in town. Outside of the arena was packed with fan attractions, such as merchandise booths and a makeshift lasso game.

It had all the feels of a mainstream sporting event. Concessions were filled, there was an in-arena light show, TV crews were all over trying to capture the action and there was even their version of a potato gun shooting items in the crowd with Wrangle-sponsored stress balls launched in the air. The event was broadcasted on CBS.

Riders competed in front of a nearly sold out crowd at Desert Diamond Arena. One of those fans in attendance was Allen Maxwell, a Tempe resident who was at PBR for the first time. His family are big fans of it and got him into the sport.

“The culture is really welcoming,” Maxwell said. “It’s good to be with a community who has really good values, good roots. Everyone is coming together, it’s a family-friendly event. It’s clean, good entertainment. Honestly, I love it.”

Maxwell has an unique perspective compared to most fans — he is a naturopathic doctor and his clients consist of bull riders themselves. Part of his work includes regenerative injection therapy to help the joints; Maxwell said it’s a lot of shoulder and wrist injuries.

Now, he finally got to see up close the cause of those injuries that sent those cowboys to him.

“It’s been impressive and surprising there’s not more injuries,” Maxwell said with a laugh. “They handle it really well. You can tell they’re trained. They know how to relax and tense their body in the right way to avoid it. But I’m impressed. That’s a lot of force they’re facing out there every moment. They’re tough.”

Also attending for the first time was Chris Walloe, who lives in downtown Phoenix. Walloe probably doesn’t fit your typical description of a PBR fan — he works in neurology.

But his father is a cowboy, and Walloe shares similar interests.

“My brothers have been trying to drag me to an event like this,” Walloe said. “This is the first time I had the chance to come out, and it has been fantastic. I watch the sport on TV, but I’ve never been to an event. If you look away, you can miss something very spectacular.”

Like Maxwell, he found the atmosphere welcoming in his first trip. Even though it was his first time, he was cheering and chanting in the crowd as if he had been attending for years.

He explained what it is about the sport of bull riding that intrigues him.

“It’s about the technique and confidence,” Walloe said. “If you know yourself really well, then you’ll do really well. If you don’t go in feeling like you’re going to dominant to the bull, you’ll lose for sure. But if you come in with confidence and you know you’re going to attack it, you’ll do well.”

The life of a modern bull rider

Based in Glendale, the Arizona Ridge Riders are one of eight teams in the newly formed PBR. On Saturday, just before the second day of competition, the team announced a new training home. The Ridge Riders struck a partnership with Buckeye Equestrian and Events Center, where riders will be able have a facility to further hone their skills.

They are also the only team in the league to have their own permanent locker room, situated in the bowels of Desert Diamond Arena.

It’s a clean and sleek setting where the cowboys can ready themselves for the task ahead, which Ridge Riders coach Colby Yates said requires great mental fortitude.

“We’re talking to them daily to make sure their head space is in the right place,” Yates said. “That’s a big part of it. As an individual sport, you never really had that. That’s one piece that we add to it, we can make sure they’re confident in themselves and their ability at all times. That’s a big part to their success.”

Alongside Yates, Paulo Crimber is the coach of the Ridge Riders. Both are former bull riders themselves, and used to compete when the sport was just an individual one.

The sport is really unlike any other on the planet as competitors as young as 18 years old try to ride bulls that can weigh up 2,000 pounds.

Casey Lane is the general manager of the team. For him, the sport allows for a form of expression that draws him in.

“Sometimes overly masculine things can be misperceived,” Lane said. “This is a very wholesome way for these guys to show their grit, their determination, their athleticism in a way that pays a lot of tribute to the West, and the history of the West.”

The life of a bull rider isn’t easy.

They deal with nearly daily pain, don’t have the same salaries as other professional athletes do and there’s a chance they come out a completely different person than when they entered the arena every single time they perform.

It’s all part of the job, according to Nick Tetz.

“It’s a sport that you get into it, it gets in your blood and you just can’t get it out it seems like,” Tetz said. “You deal with the injuries, they come and go. We got a guy who broke his femur three weeks ago, he’s walking, he’s at this event just because he just likes being around the atmosphere. That’s where this sport is, it’s a big family.”

PBR looking to widen

At the moment, there are eight teams across seven states for PBR. The league is in its second year of existence, and has a broadcasting deal with CBS Sports.

Rod Granger, president of PBR properties, said the league is trying to grow.

“For the 2024 season, we’re looking to expand by two teams to have 10 teams total,” Granger said. “We’re in the process of doing that now. Hopefully we’ll able to announce something soon. After that, the goal is to expand by another six teams somewhere down in the future and then split the division up into two, eight-team divisions that play each other.”

It’s very early on, but the returns have been good for PBR.

The arena was nearly filled up, they have secured a media rights deal with a legacy corporation and the sport reaches a global audience with tours in Canada and Mexico.

“I think it has surpassed everybody's expectations in year two,” Granger said. “I mean, we’re not even finished with year two, and the passion we’re seeing and the immediate impact it has with the fanbase is incredible.”

Results

On Saturday evening, the second day of the three-day competition, the Ridge Riders treated the home crowd to a dominating performance as they beat the Missouri Thunder 260.75-0. Nick Tetz won his round early on to set the tone for the Ridge Riders.

Arizona native Cody Jesus — who is from Window Rock — also put on a show for the fans as he was able to lead a narrow comeback for the Texas Rattlers over the Carolina Cowboys, edging out the win 88.75-88.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona pays homage to its Western roots with PBR tour stop